Found: Two Original Illustrations for Kipling’s The Jungle Book
- 38 minutes ago
- 1 min read
'Lost' for over a century, two watercolours were hanging unrecognized on the walls of a London family home for decades.
“These drawings were never treated as ‘important’ works in our family - they were simply part of our home,” the family, who wish to remain anonymous, explained. “Finding out that they restore a missing piece of the visual history of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book has been completely unexpected.” It transpires that the illustrations were created in 1903 for the deluxe portfolio, Sixteen Illustrations of Subjects from Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’, which was commissioned by book publisher Macmillan & Co in 1902. It was limited to just 500 copies and the portfolio was published separately from the book itself, which had been published nine years earlier in 1894 - a timeless collection of seven short stories set in India, following the man-cub Mowgli, raised by wolves and mentored by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther, as he confronts the tiger fearsome Shere Khan.
One watercolour depicts Mowgli with Bagheera, the black panther - painted by Edward Detmold. The other is by Edward’s twin, Charles Detmold, and depicts Cold Lairs, the home of the ‘Monkey People’ or Bandar-log. The rediscovery of these charming illustrations increases the number of known surviving originals to just six out of an original set of 16. Maybe you have one hanging in your home?
The four other known surviving illustrations are now split between private collections, and England's Natural History Museum, and the National Trust.
London auctioneers Roseberys will offer both works for sale in March, and estimates that they will fetch £15,000 ($20,000) each.